For my weekly writing spot on this site, see the One-Minute Mystic, with a new meditation posted every Monday. Also see The Village, the story of Misty Longings, England's most beautiful village, posted episode by episode earlier this year.       Perhaps our New Year resolutions are a matter of horse sense. Here's one approach. First of all, make a list of your goals for the year ahead. Do be specific. Instead of writing "Get fit", for instance – or indeed, "Get fat", which is another possibility – say, "I want to be able to run five miles by July." All your goals should be positive. You don't say "I will give up chocolate." Rather, you say, "I will find out more about healthy food." With your list of goals established, you now prioritise. You focus perhaps on three, and then set a series of realistic targets for each. "I want to be able to run one mile by the end of February", for instance. Or, "I will taste three new fruits before the Ides of March." The secret to this resolution business is to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-based. This is a sensible vision of personal progress, which life coaches and motivational writers quite rightly dine out on – for there is a level of health to it all. It's absolutely right, for it is the organized affirmation of you. Very good. But it's also absolutely wrong, for the very same reason. The first approach outlined is that of popular psychology; the second, that of what is perhaps best called unpopular psychology. And stepping straight into the Wild West, we may face a shoot-out between the two, as the New Year dawns. Popular psychology bids you grasp the reins of control of your life as you hurtle across the prairie. The insanely powerful horses need a strong hand as they pull your wagon towards your goal – the OK Ranch by sundown. You just need to take control. You can do it. Unpopular psychology has a different ambition for you. It suggests you let go of the reins, wave goodbye to the mad horses and leap off the wagon, which was going nowhere fast anyway. Standing alone in the prairie – a place you'd previously feared – you now embark on a rather different adventure. In the distance, the wheels come off the wagon, and the horses bolt, yet despite your former goal now being a meaningless hallucination, you surprisingly seem none the worse for wear. I have a goal. One day I'd like to live in a flat on the seafront, facing the big water's calm and crash. It is so far from what is presently possible, however, that by the time I get there, it will probably have been washed away – which is the story of most goals. You may make it – but there is a smell of rot and damp even as you enter. Perhaps alongside the goals of our life, coaches and motivational writers, we need the sparse words of death coaches and demotivational writers. It's good to be SMART – even more liberating, however, is TRUTH – To Remain Unattached To Horses. More writings © Simon Parke